Scott Nishimura snishimura@bizpress.net
Several thousand runners and bicyclists took to the Chisholm Trail Parkway Saturday, getting a windy, once-in-a-lifetime chance to have the road to themselves before it opens to car traffic Sunday.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price led cyclists on a 45-mile roundtrip from the Clearfork development on the Trinity River in west Fort Worth. An estimated 2,000 bicyclists did roundtrip rides of 12 to 45 miles, and 2,000 runners did runs ranging from a one-mile kids run to a half marathon.
Price and a pack she was in ended up completing a 33-mile segment instead of attempting the full 45 miles.
“The wind was just brutal,” she said Saturday night, while watching election returns in the city’s $292 million bond package and Crime Control and Prevention District re-authorization, both of which passed by wide margins.
How windy was it?
Price said her group did the southbound segment into a headwind at one hour and 27 minutes. On the return, with a tailwiind, her group came back in at 29 minutes.
“It was fabulous,” she said.
Fort Worth City Manager Tom Higgins completed a 12-mile segment on a Fort Worth Bike Sharing B-Cycle bike.
“I still don’t know why I’m doing this,” he joked before he headed out on the ride.
Proceeds from the event benefit CASA of Tarrant County and CASA of Johnson County, which advocate for neglected and abused children.
The 28-mile highway, planned since the 1960s, connects downtown to Cleburne.